Playing electronic games is a popular pastime, and continues to grow in popularity as more devices, particularly mobile devices, are created to facilitate gaming. Many mobile devices, such as mobile (e.g., cellular) telephones and personal digital assistants (PDAs), are capable of executing gaming applications. Additionally, dedicated mobile gaming devices have been created. These mobile gaming devices allow users to participate in electronic games away from the user's personal computer. When the mobile gaming devices are connected via a wireless network, the user is able to participate in multi-player electronic games away from the user's personal computer and wired network connection.
For purposes of this application, the term “gaming device” will be used to refer to all devices capable of executing gaming applications, whether the device is a personal computer, a cellular telephone, a PDA, a gaming console, a dedicated mobile gaming device, or any other type of device, whether multi-player or single player, whether connected to a network or not, and if connected to a network, whether the network is the Internet, a cellular telephone network, or any other type of network, and whether the communication with the network is wired or wireless.
Users of gaming devices often spend a great deal of time playing the electronic games. The users may become very familiar with a particular electronic game, such that the user can anticipate the action of the game before an event occurs in the game. Such familiarity may cause the user to become bored with a game. One method of preventing such boredom is to frequently acquire new games to play. There are several problems with this solution. New games may have to be purchased and it may be expensive to purchase many new games. Adding new games to a gaming device requires that the gaming device have available memory to store the game. The new games may need to be downloaded from a network, such as the Internet. Depending on the bandwidth of the network connection to which the gaming device is connected, it may take a long time to download a new game. A game developer or third party may create and sell additional game levels or extension packs that may be used to modify an existing game. These additional game levels and extension packs may also be expensive to purchase. Finally, while the user may be bored with a certain game, the user may also enjoy that particular game and may not desire to learn a new game.
Another method of preventing such boredom is to customize a game. Games, whether single- or multi-player and regardless of the game genre, usually come with a set of features such as game maps and/or scenarios. Some games include the ability to create new and customized features which may then be incorporated into future game play. These new or extension maps and/or scenarios are often developed and distributed by the developer of the game or by the users (players) of the game. Games played using mobile gaming devices have often been used for spending some idle time, while games played on personal computers and game consoles (collectively termed fixed games) often involve extensive and complicated development of game characters and/or achievement of a ranking in a gaming community. As a result, users of such fixed games may be more likely to develop extension maps and scenarios and share the developed features with other users. Conversely, the effort by members of the gaming community to create game maps and scenarios may not happen for the mobile games on the same scale as with fixed games.
Furthermore, the development of maps and scenarios usually require special development tools, and may be time consuming. While the maps and scenarios in games executing on mobile gaming devices might be simpler than for fixed games, the development in the mobile terminal itself is often quite difficult because of the hardware and software limitations of such a mobile device.
As such, there is a need for a gaming device, method, and computer program product for quickly and easily customizing electronic games, thereby enabling users of such games to add new features that may restore the user's interest in a familiar game.